Five years after his untimely passing at age 42, Prodigy‘s voice still echoes loud. As a solo artist and as half of the iconic Queens rap duo Mobb Deep opposite Havoc, his contributions to the hip-hop canon are hard to overhype. Today, his estate has shared an unreleased track of his, produced by the legendary DJ Premier. Following “You Will See” feat. Berto Rich, “Walk Out” is the second single from Prodigy’s first posthumous LP, The Hegelian Dialectic 2: The Book of Heroine. Billed as a follow-up to his final album, Hegelian Dialectic (The Book of Revelation) and the second installment of the developing Hegelian Dialectic trilogy, it’s scheduled to arrive September 30 via Infamous Records.
The new song evokes the gritty golden age of the ’90s and early aughts, when Mobb Deep’s ice-cold brutality made them contenders for the New York crown. Premier’s characteristic cuts and scratches on the track clear a path for Prodigy’s no-nonsense lyricism. “Been in the house for three days, high on drugs / Me and my bitch, all we do is fight and we fuck,” he begins, setting the tone for street scenes straight from a Hughes Brothers flick.
“I was honored to connect these two iconic legends in Hip Hop — DJ Premier, and Prodigy,” wrote manager and attorney, L. Londell McMillan, a manager and attorney for the late emcee’s estate and the owner of The Source in a statement accompanying the song’s release. “This is truly special for the culture and [I’m] grateful for the collaboration of these giants.”
“It’s always an honor to work with the great Prodigy,” Premier added in the same statement. “Since “Peer Pressure” — [which] I produced — I knew early on that he would be an all-time great. His legacy lives on and [I’m] happy to be a part of it.”
“Walk Out” arrives alongside an animated, extremely New York music video courtesy of PAPERFACE. Watch it above, and hear DJ Premier discuss his recent Hip-Hop 50 mixtape on the 54th episode of The FADER Interview.
